


The Flock Goes to Hogwarts

by THEfanofstuff



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Maximum Ride - James Patterson
Genre: Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, I'm Sorry, Multi, One-Sided Attraction, Slow To Update, What Have I Done, Work In Progress, enjoy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-18
Updated: 2015-07-22
Packaged: 2018-04-05 00:22:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4158534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/THEfanofstuff/pseuds/THEfanofstuff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>****THIS IS ORIGIONALLY ON FANFICTION.NET****<br/>Age changer, the flock are all 11(besides Angel, who's 10), so they're going to be a bit OC. I would prefer it to be different, but they have to be to abide by the rules of the Harry Potter Universe. There are also two OC's in there that I planted on a whim. Hopefully that doesn't ruin the story.</p><p>Max and the flock are interrupted from their wonderful sleep at 3 in the morning by a crazy old man who thinks he's a wizard and has a magical flower-producing stick. Seriously? Who does that? Can't you at least wait until morning to give us our letters?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Three in the morning? Really?

**Author's Note:**

> Sup.  
> This is one of the most successful and god knows longest fic I've written. It got rather popular on Fanfiction.net (aka. a few people liked it) so I figured I'd post it here. Don't be surprised if it stops after a certain point, though, because I have quite a few original stories that I'm writing too. I will try to continue this as long as I can, though. I hope it's enough.

**Bold is Fang and Max talking with their eyes**

_Italic is Angel talking in people's heads_

Underlined is the voice talking in Max's head

I woke up to a dark room. We had stayed at a hotel for once, and gotten two connecting rooms with 2 beds each. Iggy and Gazzy shared a bed, Angel got her own bed, and Nudge kicked me out of our bed that we were sharing, so I went over and shared with Fang. He didn't mind, as I had woken him up from a nightmare.

I looked around and saw that Fang was awake too. He motioned for me to be quiet and pointed at a very sound asleep Nudge. I nodded silently and slipped out of bed. Iggy and Gazzy appeared in the doorway to the other room, also silent and alert. Suddenly, a knock could be heard from the door. We all tensed, and looked at each other. Who in the world would come knocking at 3 in the morning? We knew it wasn't Erasers, they aren't the polite type. Neither were any of the other bad guys, now that I think about it.

 _Don't worry, Max. He's here to help, and be good._ Angel said in my mind. Apparently Nudge was the only one not awake. I motioned for Fang to wake up Nudge, and for the other 2 to start packing as I slowly made my way to the door. I opened the door a teeny tiny bit and said "Who the heck are you?" The old man standing there had a really long beard, and when I say that, I mean long enough to go down to his knees. His hair went even farther, and he had a kind twinkle in his eyes, the kind that made you want to trust him immediately. I resisted it and looked at his clothes. He was wearing a midnight blue long robe, with white stars and constellations.

"I am Professor Dumbledore." Fang came up behind me and muttered in my ear, "Let him in." I opened the door and stepped aside, Fang still behind me, placing a protective hand on my shoulder. He smiled at us and stepped inside, completely ignorant to the fact that it was 3 in the morning.

"What do you want?" I asked rudely. I can't help it if I didn't have any patience at 3 in the morning. I wondered if he was a mutant that escaped. Then again, I don't know if they had the School 300 years ago. That's how old he looked, anyway. Did I mention that it was 3 in the morning?

"I have come to tell you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry." He said pleasantly, still smiling. I waited a second, then we all started laughing, even Fang. This must be a dream.

 _It isn't a dream, Max._ Angel said in my head. I stopped laughing and frowned.

 _It's not a dream._ She repeated. _You wouldn't be aware of it if it was._

I looked at Fang, and I could see in his eyes that she had told him that too. **What do you think?** I asked him with my eyes. **I don't know, but I think we should humor him for now.** His eyes said. I looked at the professor and frowned. He was watching us a smile on his face, waiting to explain. When he saw he had our attention, he opened his mouth to talk, but Nudge beat him to it.

"Are you a wizard? Like, oh my gosh! Can you do magic? Can you make flowers? Or candy? That would be soooo cool! I like gummy worms, but chocolate is the best. Max agrees, but Iggy says it's too brown. Oh my gosh, this is like, the best dream ever! well, except that one with the uni-" Nudge said excitedly, thankfully stopped by Iggy's hand. The 'wizard' simply smiled at her, pulled out a stick from somewhere, waved it around, and said, "Flora Comotor". A single rose bloom came out of the end of the end, and he gave it to Nudge, whose squeal of delight could be heard perfectly clearly through Iggy's hand. The professor took out some letters from his robe of stars and handed them to me.

"These are your letters of invitation. If you chose to believe me, then stay here. My assistant will come and collect you. I would strongly suggest you do, as most young wizards either go insane or die from their growing powers suffocating them." He said seriously, not smiling for the first time this morning. "Although you are special, and I'm sure you could handle it, it would not come without difficulty. Now on that happy note, I shall leave you to get some well-needed rest." With that he tipped his hat to us, waved cheerfully at Nudge, Angel, and Gazzy, and was out the door before I could say, "Huh."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fang and Max have a talk, They decide whether or not they should go, exposition shit. You know, the usual.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note that I am literally just copy & pasting here. I am only fixing minor details that I notice off the top of my head. If you do notice something, please do notify me. I do enjoy it when people actually care enough to tell me so I can improve it.

You think I would get any sleep after that?

"Well, back to bed with you." I said briskly, ushering the kids back to bed and tucking them in. I started with Angel.

"He was telling the truth, you know." Angel said sleepily as I pulled up the covers and kissed her forehead.

"Okay, I just want to discuss it with Fang." I said, slightly less certain that the guy was crazy. Next were Iggy and Gazzy.

"Man, it'd be cool to be a wizard. Imagine the explosions we could make happen magically." Gazzy mumbled. "Yeah that'd be-" Iggy yawned, "super cool." He sleepily put up a hand, and Gazzy high-fived it, as they drifted off into their pyromaniac dreams. I just smiled at them fondly and went over to Nudge.

"I hope this isn't a dream." She smiled at me while snuggling into her covers.

"It isn't." I promised. We just have to figure out if it's a trap. Nudge fell asleep easily, breathing in and out slower than normal breathing, but still faster than a human's sleeping. I smiled sadly. I wish I could give them the life they wanted, a life away from all of this, a life where they were just normal people with normal lives, but I couldn't. I felt a hand on my shoulder and was snapped out of my thoughts. It was Fang. He gestured silently to the balcony, wanting to talk. Fang and I were the parents of the flock. We were the ones who led the flock, took care of them, comforted them. We made the decisions together, whether with the flock, or just between us. They looked up to us, and we have never let them down. It's going to stay that way. I sighed and looked at the street below us. We were currently in London, just seeing the sights, hiding from Flyboys, and chillin. You know, the normal. I turned to Fang and said, "Well, what do you think?"

"I don't know what to think. I mean, sure, it kinda makes sense, and it would be nice if it was, because it'd give us a place to stay if it was, but on the down side, it most likely isn't, and if it isn't, then it's a trap, and they have found us again." Fang concluded. I gaped at him.

"Did you really say all that?" I asked, amazed. He rolled his eyes.

"Yeah." He went back to one word answers. I couldn't help it. I smiled. Then he did something even rarer. He smiled back and took my hand. I felt nervous for some reason, and looked down.

"I think we should go along with it for now, and just be on our guard." I said to my shoes. They agreed with me. I heard Fang nod in agreement, and I looked back up. He had his half-smile back, and pulled me back inside. It was warmer in here. We both lay down on the bed, and I put the letters down on the bedside table. I flopped on my stomach, exhausted, and knew we would both be cranky in the morning. I untucked my wings a little, glad to be able to relax. I saw Fang do the same, and drifted off, wondering about the world. I woke up to the sound of giggling and something frying. I ignored them, and snuggled closer to my heat source.

"Max." I heard from my heat source, and it shifted. Wait, what? I tensed . I opened my eyes to see a wall of black fabric. Fang was hugging me to him gently to him.

**You had a nightmare.** He told me.

**Oh, sorry.** I blushed and looked down. He let go of me and said, "It's no problem, really." I sat up and looked at 3 very amused and confused faces looking back at me. Iggy was making breakfast.

"It's cute but very confusing when you guys talk with your eyes, you know? I mean, we don't know what you're saying, but you do it anyway. Sort of like a couple do. OMG, you guys as a couple would be soooo cute together. You could get together and get married, and have kids, and Angel and I would be aunts, and Gazzy and Iggy would be their uncles, but-" This time Nudge was cut off by Gazzy's hand. I smiled thankfully at him. and got up to go get breakfast, which my nose was telling me was done. My nose was right. After a wonderful breakfast of French toast, I picked up the letters and handed them to everyone.

"Alright, I'm going to open mine first, and then if nothing bad happens to me immediately, then you can open yours." I instructed the group. I opened the letter and looked inside, only to find….. a piece of paper. I pulled it out, bemused. At once, the others opened theirs and started reading, Gazzy reading Iggy's softly to him. I sighed and started reading mine.

* * *

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore (Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confederation of Wizards)

Dear Ms. Ride, We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We await your owl no later than August 31.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

* * *

I looked up to see everyone looking back at me with a mixture of confusion, curiosity, and excitement. I looked at the other 2 pieces of paper that were in the envelope, and started reading the one that didn't look like a supply list.

* * *

Dear Ms. Ride, I am aware of your situation and would like to tell you that you and your flock are not alone in this predicament. You will be meet others here who will need your help. Do not expect all of the people here to have your outstanding qualities, but all of them will know about them. You can and most likely will use these qualities freely on campus, and I would encourage the others to do the same. Here you will find out things about yourselves that you didn't know before, besides magic. My gamekeeper will come to pick you up at eleven o'clock. If you aren't there, he will just assume you will not want to come.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Albus Dumbledore

Headmaster

* * *

"Well the, it looks like they weren't joking." I muttered. A loud cheer went around the table. I handed Fang the letter, and he read it silently, while I watched the kids celebrate. He handed it silently back to me with his eyebrows raised, Fang's version of astonishment.

**So, do you want to go?** His eyes asked me.

**Actually, for some reason, yes. A part of me is wishing this was all true. And we've got enough evidence to believe him.** I said back, and looked at the others. They were celebrating like they had won the lottery. The bird-kid lottery, that is. Fang and I sat in the corner, discussing escape plans and routes, while the younger ones happily chatted about what they thought it would be like. We lost track of time until Angel, Nudge, and Gazzy started chanting down from 60 as the clock struck 10:59.

At 11:00 there was a knock on the door, sounding like an earthquake. I went to the door and we all go into fighting stance except Angel, who stood still. "Who's there?" I said to the figure I saw through the crack, It was massive. "Hagrid, game keeper of Hogwarts." he boomed.


	3. On to Hogwarts!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, like I said in my other note, this is all copy-pasted, and hopefully I will find the time to do it every weekday (I have swim and family stuff on weekends). But, I am doing this one-handed, because my other hand has weird medical problems at the moment.
> 
> Oh, and sorry, Max does get a bit mushy in this chapter, I wrote this forever and a day ago, I don't know what I was thinking. But, here you go.

I let him in while the kids got their stuff. After getting to know him(his personality is as wild as his beard), we started walking. He led us down an alleyway near where we were staying and disappeared into a door that I, if I were a normal teenager(shudder), would not noticed.

I looked in suspicion to Angel, but She motioned that it was fine. We entered silently. We could hear loud rock music coming from the small stereo in the corner of the room. There was a rugged couch on the opposite wall, but that was all there was in the room, besides a door. Just then a girl who was tall and skinny with black clothes that looked like she had slept in them for weeks. Then I saw her hair. It was changing colors. Both of us immediately crouched into battle position, then relaxed once we saw that the other was a mutant too.

"So, another emo?" I joked.

"I'm not emo!" Both Fang and the new girl said at the same time. Funny.

Then another boy came in through the door. He froze when he saw us, but relaxed as soon as he saw Angel, for some reason. He noticed us all staring at him, and said, "What?" He had spiky black hair, one blue and one green eye, entirely black clothes like the other girl, and black and red headphones around his neck.

"So why don't you guys think we're a threat?" I asked, confused. Any mutant that had escaped the School had to be very paranoid.

"I can read minds and transmit my thoughts into people's minds, a lot like Angel over there, but more like your and Fang's connection." he said. I nodded understandingly and exchanged a glance with Fang. Hagrid, who had sat back and watched while we met each other, said, "Well, we have to get one more person before we go shopping, so let's go." He exited through the door in which we came.

* * *

Shopping. A Max's worst nightmare. I exited after him, 7 people coming behind me. Suddenly, about 30 Fly-boys appeared along the rooftops along the alleyway walls.

"Don't worry, guys, we got this." I said, motioning to Fang. He rolled his eyes and followed me into the air. We flew above the rooftops, to low to be seen, but high enough to have them follow us into the air. Our plan worked, and now we were surrounded by Fly-boys. We looked at each other and nodded. We started doing the movements we synchronized long ago, covering each other but not hitting our wings. After about 2 minutes, and most of the Fly-boys were down, one did an unexpected move and hit my wing. I dropped like a stone.

"MAX!" Fang yelled. He turned, dived, and caught me before I had fallen 15 feet. "I'm fine, I'm fine." I said, relieved and irritated. I was relieved that Fang had managed to catch me before I had fallen too far, and irritated at both myself and the Fly-boy for the fact that it had been able to make that move. I righted myself in the air as Fang let me go, still looking worried. I took out an Fly-boy who was trying to creep up behind Fang while I kissed his cheek in thanks. I then zoomed off to take out the last 2 Erasers who were coming our way. Oh, the fun of being a mutant. When we were finished, we landed in front of Hagrid, the flock, and the other mutants. I then noticed that New Girl had changed her hair and eyes to match New Boy, whose names I never got.

_Their names are Alice and Uriah._ Angel told me sweetly.

_Thanks_ I replied. Uriah had grabbed the stereo and now held it on his shoulder like it weighed nothing. I surveyed the alley, and Hagrid was the only surprised one. Iggy looked frustrated, and I knew it was because he was blind. I went over and gave him a hug. He was surprised for a moment, but returned the hug thankfully. I drew back, and saw that he was smiling. I turned Hagrid, who was still looking at us with complete astonishment, and asked, "Where's the next target?"

"Number 4, Privet Drive." He replied weakly. I gestured at Fang, who pulled out his laptop and gave it to Nudge, who looked it up while I turned around to face the other mutants.

"So, do you have wings?" I asked them.

"Yes."

"Sometimes." they said at the same time. Then Alice said, "Well, one of my powers is shape shifting/changing my appearance, so I sometimes don't." I nodded, not surprised.

"We've got directions." Fang said quietly from behind me. I whirled around, gasping. "Don't do that, Fang!" I gasped, laughing. He grinned, lighting up his face.

"Kay, how far is it?" I asked once I had gotten my breath back.

"Did the great Maxy Ride just say 'Kay'?" He asked, still teasing me.

"Shut up, Fnick." I muttered, my glare of death ruined by the smile on my face. He handed me a piece of paper, still grinning. I read it. 2 miles. Close.

"Come on everyone." I said. "Let's go." And so that's how I lead my merry band of mutants plus one giant down the road to the plainest street in London. When we arrived at number 4, We heard a high pompous voice yelling about something called a 'Duddykins' and for Harry to open the door. When the door was opened by a small, wiry, fast-looking boy, who I immediately took a liking to, I asked cheerfully,"Hi. I'm Max. What's a 'Duddykins'?"

Beside me, Fang face palmed, and the boy, Harry I'm guessing, looked close to laughter. He was suddenly pushed away roughly, being replaced by a large man who closely resembled a walrus. My smile was instantly replaced with a scowl, and I took an instant disliking to him. "Listen, mate. We're here to take Harry off of your shoulders and to the school where he belongs. Harry, get your stuff. You're going to a much better place than this. Oh, and you should lay off the dough. You look like a walrus." I said before walrus guy had a chance to speak. Harry, who I could barely see behind the wall of walrus fat in front of me, nodded, and ran off to get his best part about it? I used a completely awesome fake British accent.

The walrus man was slowly turning beet color, so I unfolded my wings a bit and growled, giving him a death glare. Not my best one, though,he didn't deserve that. He backed away in fear, and I turned to Fang and smiled my most innocent and yet self-satisfied smile I could. It must have worked, because he just rolled his eyes and went to go help Harry carry his trunk down the stairs. As soon as Harry was out the door, I shut the door in Walrus's face. Hagrid seemed to have finally recovered, because he said, "Alright, this way." and led us down more streets.

Fang, Harry, and I were right behind Hagrid, with Alice,and Iggy,then Nudge and Angel, and finally Gazzy and Uriah bringing up the rear. "So really, what is a Duddykins?" I asked Harry earnestly. He smothered laughter as I watched him, finally calming down enough to say,"My cousin." before erupting in more laughter. Fang and I exchanged a confused look. We chat about random things before arriving at the pub, just as the sun was going down.

"Right." Hagrid said decisively. "We'll have to stay here tonight. He led us inside and asked the bartender for 5 rooms, and once he saw us he led us right up. It was weird, because when we entered the place, everyone stopped and stared at us. Mainly me and Harry, but they stared at all of us like we were famous. Apparently I was to share with Fang and Harry, Uriah with Alice, Nudge with Angel, Iggy and Gazzy, and Hagrid had a room for himself. Our room had 2 twin beds, but none of us were about to sleep on the floor if I could help it, so I just made Fang share with me. It wasn't until morning that any of us noticed the comfy looking couch in the corner of the room.

I got the other kids and we headed down to breakfast in a single file line. Yeah, right. We can't even do that when awake with full stomachs. During breakfast, Fang even fell back asleep on my shoulder. "You must have really tired him out last night. How were you so quiet?" Iggy said, joking. "Shut it, sexist pig." I growled, only held back from smacking him upside the head by a sleeping Fang, who had at that moment put an arm around me and nuzzled his face into my neck, mumbling about teddy bears and gummy worms. Alice, Iggy, Gazzy were laughing, Harry and Uriah were chuckling, and the rest of them were still too asleep to respond to Fang's uncharacteristic sign of affection.

He suddenly woke with a start, yelling my name, and fell out of his chair. By now, those who weren't glaring at him(me) were laughing their heads off(everyone else). He looked around, tense, but relaxed as soon as he saw that I was okay. He then took in the situation, and right as he turned his confused look at me, Iggy said, "Must have been one nice dream."

Fang blushed. He actually blushed! He then asked me with his eyes what happened.

**Well, first you fell asleep on my shoulder. Then Iggy made a sexist pig remark, and you started talking about teddy bears and gummy worms while giving me a hug. Then, everyone started laughing, and you jerked awake screaming my name, and fell on the floor. I'd find it very funny had I not been a victim too.** I told him.

**I kinda had a nightmare.** He told me reluctantly, as if I was going to bite his head off for being weak.

**What happened?** I asked.

**Later.** was the reply.

"Great. Now that everyone is awake, how about we go shopping?" I said, clapping my hands and trying not to shudder. At least we had a time limit and a list. Without one, Nudge and Angel will go crazy and kill me with their over obsessive shoppiness. Fang smirked at me. I scowled at him. We finished our breakfast and Hagrid led us out the back way into an empty alleyway. I was for some reason feeling suspicious of the back wall and wasn't surprised when it retreated after a few well-placed taps of Hagrid's umbrella, revealing a busy street filled with people dressed as Dumbledore had been when he visited us at 3 in the freaking morning. The shops lining the street were very odd indeed. Oh great, I'm starting to sound like an old English professor. I looked around, trying to absorb everything with my eyes and ears. Gazzy was leading Iggy through the crowds, looking excited. Iggy just looked confused. Hagrid led us to an elegant white building that said Gringotts Wizarding Bank.

We were scanned for bad stuff, apparently came off clean, and entered the double doors. On the wall above the doors opposite us, there were a bunch of words engraved. I read them aloud quietly while the others listened.

* * *

_Enter, stranger, but take heed Of what awaits the sin of greed, For those who take, but do not earn, Must pay dearly in their turn. So if you seek beneath our floors A treasure that was never yours, Theif, you have been warned, beware Of finding more than treasure there._

* * *

"Ominus." Iggy muttered.

"Hagrid." I said realizing something."We don't have any money. What are we doing in a bank?" The others agreed with me, looking at him in confusion.

"You'll see." He said, winking at us. He lead us straight up to the front of the room.

He noticed us staring at the weird creatures and whispered, "They're goblins, they are. Don't cross paths with a goblin. Creatures of honor and all, see. Deadly clever. Will have your money in 'is hands before you know it's out of yours." He glanced around nervously, as if he expected a goblin to come out and attack him at any moment.

"How may I help you?" The goblin at the desk asked us crisply. Hagrid started, as if he had forgotten he was there, and cleared his throat importantly. "The Rides, Potters, and Griffins would like to extract from their vaults, oh and this," He pulled a letter out of his coat that had TOP SECRET stamped in bright red ink across the front and gave it to the goblin.

"It's about You-know-what in vault You-know-where, from Dumbledore himself." He said in a very loud and obvious whisper. "I see. I will need proof that it is them, of course." The goblin looked up at us. His desk may be tall, but we(me, Fang, Iggy, Uriah, and Alice) were only about half an inch shorter than Hagrid himself, being the mutants we are.

"Your wings." Hagrid told us.

"Ohh. In that case, you might want to step back a bit." I said, catching on. We positioned ourselves so that we wouldn't hit anyone, then we all whipped out our wings. Mine were 14 feet long, and a dark, chocolaty brown, with flecks of white. Fang, who was as always hovering by my shoulder(not literally, this time), had midnight black wings which were almost as long as mine. Alice had chocolate brown and black wings, sort of a mix of mine and Fang's. Uriah had grey wings, which were broad and kind of short for bird-kid size. Harry had grey-black wings, which were speckled with green, and long and thin, just like else in the hall stopped and stared, mesmerized. I hated it.

"Okay, this way, follow me please." We pulled our wings back in and followed the goblin who was beckoning us. "Your parents all had a joint vault." Hagrid explained to us as we walked through the tunnels and corridors. "They all had wings too, see. They made a group at Hogwarts, you winged people being more common back then. They were more or less the trouble makers o' the lot. You are all that's left of the winged people nowadays. You're all famous. Your parents even had their own house, back when winged people weren't so rare. You'll get your house to yourselves, I suppose. I'll tell you more about it when we've gotten your stuff." He said as we were loaded into 2 carts on dangerous looking tracks. I sat on the end of one, Fang pressed to my side, then Angel, who was talking to Harry on her other side. Alice was on the other end of the cart, looking absently into the abyss.

Hagrid, Iggy, Gazzy, Nudge, and Uriah were packed into the other cart. I bet we were all nice and cozy. Then the cart started up, and comfort was the least of my I was used to going fast, but I was relying on my own strength then. Here, I wouldn't have the time to snap out my wings before hitting the jagged rocks on either side of the rails. Fang's hand found mine in the dark and squeezed it, and I felt a bit better. I was shaky when we all got out of the cart in front of a very elaborate-looking door. It had 9 different feather-shaped holes. I unconsciously picked a feather from my wing and held it up to the first hole, seeing the others do the same out of the corner of my eye. It was a perfect fit. We all put our feathers in at the same time, and stepped back to watch the door open. Inside, there were piles of gold, mountains of it. I looked at the others for their reactions, and even Fang had his mouth open slightly, meaning he was as shocked as I was. He turned to me, and said out loud,

"I think I hit my head." I burst out laughing.

"I think I hit my head too." I said, smiling.

"Me three." Iggy and Gazzy said together.

"Me four." said Angel and Nudge. We all burst out laughing, with Hagrid and the goblins watching bemusedly. When we finally stopped, Hagrid handed us all pouches to put the gold in. "They're bigger on the inside." He had explained when he saw me eyeing it's small size. After that the kids went crazy. They ran, jumped, and dived into the mountains in the vast room. Fang and I went to the nearest pile and began methodically filling our pouches. According to Hagrid, they only opened for the owner. When we had our fill of gold, we rode to Vault 713, where Hagrid picked up the mysterious package for the crazy 3:00 in the morning Professor. After that, we finally went back outside. I love being outside.

"Where are we going next?" I asked Hagrid. The crowds had thickened so much that I couldn't see any of the other stores. He told us, and I bound over the crowd's heads, frustrated, to fly. Immediately, almost everyone did a double take at the same time. It was quite amusing. I kept doing this until all we had left were our wands. We went to Ollivander's, which was, according to Hagrid, the best wandmaker in all of the wizarding world. As we entered the shop, a bell tinkled, announcing our arrival, but no one came to the front desk. I stepped forward and rang the ringer, anxious. I stepped back and felt Fang put his hand on my shoulder, comforting me. An old man appeared suddenly around the corner, and all of us flinched in surprise.

"Well, if you don't say." He said looking at us weirdly, a smile growing on his face.

"Who's going first?" He asked. Fang pushed me forward, and I glared at him. He just smirked, and I turned my attention back to Mr. Ollivander.

"What's your wand hand?" He asked, already pulling a tape measure out of his pocket. I held out my left hand, since I was left handed. He tossed the tape at me, but it caught itself in midair, and started measuring my arm. he went through his boxes on one of the shelves, pulling it out and muttering to himself. I had a feeling he did that a lot. He snapped his fingers and handed me the wand, the tape measure falling into a crumpled heap on his desk. I waved the wand at Fang, and turned his black shirt into a neon pink one with sparkles. "Oh my god I'm sooo sorry Fang." I squeaked and waved the wand at him again, changing it back to his usual back. The others roared with laughter. I quickly handed the wand back to Ollivander, embarrassed. It took three more wands and the destruction of several things, including Nudge's hair too, until he finally pulled out a different wand. I could tell from the moment I waved it, it was the right one. I felt a warm, slow tanning feeling spread throughout my body. I asked Angel what happened, and she sent me a mental image of myself with fire instead of eyes, beautiful short black hair with red highlights, and flaming wings. I looked like an Angel. Mr. Ollivander gave me the box, muttering, "curious, curious."

"What's curious?" I demanded. My angel look had faded as soon as I lowered my wand, and I was back to average-looking again. He looked steadily at me, as though examining me. I narrowed my eyes.

"This wand is one of the rarest wands there are. The phoenix that gave a feather for this wand also gave 4 others. I think I know who the other 3 will go to, but the first is already sold. Your wand is the most powerful of all of them, but the other belongs to the most powerful dark wizard that reigned when you were babies." He hesitated. "The same one that killed all of your parents in a mass murder. He had despised the winged people, no one knew why. When he killed your parents, he was supposedly killing the last of you. Then he found out about you. He tried to kill you, but he couldn't. The spell backfired on him. After that he disappeared. I wish I had known what would happen when I gave him that wand all of those years ago. 50, now." He snapped out of his trance, and I stepped back silently, in shock. The flock was stricken and sad. I had always believed that we had been created in the School. This was worse. Fang put his hand on my shoulder, and I just looked up at him, sad. He then stepped forward to receive his wand. When he received his wand, he turned into an angel of darkness.( **2** )

Alice was an ice angel when she received her wand, and Harry a plant one. The others turned into angels to, but they had different wands. Nudge was violet, Iggy was brown, Angel was white, Gazzy was a suspicious green, and Uriah was a dark blue. We didn't say anymore than necessary, and when we left, even Nudge was quiet. Hagrid treated us all to peanut butter and strawberry ice cream. The flock regained their usual attitudes after that, but I could tell the older kids were more freaked out than they let on. Harry and Uriah kept sending me and Fang furtive glances, and Iggy stuck to us closer than normal, as if we might disappear if he got too far away. Alice comforted and amused the younger kids by making weird animal faces with her shapeshifting. I sent a thankful smile to her when the kids weren't looking, and she smiled back.

"I might have to consider having her replace you as second in command." I teased Fang as we strolled down the alley. It was the middle of a weekday, so not many people were around. They had all gone to work. He scowled playfully and shoved Alice away gently when she got in his face, chuckling. She then turned into Fang, and walked stiffly behind us, doing a very good impression of a duck face without turning into one. We were all laughing then, him included.

"So last place to go is to get your animals." Hagrid said, scanning the list. "It says here you can bring a cat, dog, toad, rat, or bird." We walked into Pluturious's Pet Palace, and were immediately engulfed in a foul smell. I looked around, and was immediately attracted to a small red dragon, who was sitting regally in the corner, not in a cage. The owner saw me eyeing him and hurried over, looking interested.

"He can fly at speeds over 200 mph, you know, and is never picky about his food." He rambled.

"How much for him?" I asked steadily, not taking my eyes off of the dragon.

"Excuse me?" The shopkeeper looked affronted, then got a very weird gleam in his eye, looking me up and down. I watched him out of the corner of my eye, warily. He took a step forward, until he was in my personal space, and said, "Well I'm sure a young lady like you can certainly find something to pay me with." He took another step forward, and was about to put his hand on my shoulder, when suddenly the dragon was there, wings raised, screeching at him. He backed off, a look of wonder on his face.

"You passed." He said. "He will only protect someone he feels is loyal and worthy to be his owner. He has never done that before."

The dragon nuzzled my face affectionately, and I laughed, stroking his spine lightly. I gave the owner 2 Sickles and a Knutz, and went over to Fang. He was observing what looked a great black hawk with a dragon's head. It took one look at my red dragon and hopped onto Fang's shoulder, burrowing it's head into his short hair for protection. We laughed. It peeked it's head out to look at me, and I smiled at it. It relaxed, settling on his shoulder. I guess it was afraid of me instead of my Dragon. Ironic, isn't it?

He went to go pay for his dragon bird, and I looked for everyone else. Nudge bought a brown kitten with white and black spots, and was now playing with it. Alice had a large bald eagle perched on her shoulder. Uriah had a black golden retriever with gold eyes. Angel had a small black dog and Iggy had tabby cat. Gazzy had a winged serpent and tried to hide it when he saw me looking. I smiled at him, and he relaxed. Harry was admiring a large white snowy owl.

"You can have it, if you want." I said behind him. He jumped and flinched, then relaxed when he saw it was me.

"I know, but every time I close my eyes, I expect it to all be a dream." He said.

"I know how you feel." I said this more to myself than to him, surveying my flock sadly.

"What did you save them from?" He asked. I looked at him in confusion.

"Fang said you saved them from something. What was it?"

I sighed. "A living hell."

I looked around sadly. He gave me a hug, somehow seeing the nonexistent tears in my eyes. I looked down at him in surprise, but hugged him back. We broke apart and I offered my arm to the owl, who took it. We walked up to the front desk and I payed for his owl. We all walked outside, heavily loaded with our trunks and pets, to meet Hagrid who had waited outside. We looked odd even, for the magic world.

"Alright, we'll have ter be off." Hagrid said, looking at his pocket watch.

"The train leaves at 5:30. It is 5:13." We walked out of the pub and down the street to King's Cross Station. We were on the bridge over the tracks when Hagrid looked at his watch again.

"Blimey! Look at the time! Right, I have ter go. Hope to see you at Hogwarts, bye. Oh, and here." He gave me an empty backpack. "It's bigger o' the inside. You can put ur stuff in it."

"Thanks-" I started to say, then looked up to find he had disappeared. We all looked around to see he was no where in sight. We went to a secluded corner of the place where no one could see us, and put our luggage in the backpack, which I put on. It still looked and felt like an empty backpack, and we set off again feeling reasonably lighter. Then I looked at the ticket. It said Platform 9¾. I logically went and leaned on a pillar between Platforms 9 and 10. Just as I leaned against it, Fang next to me, I felt like I was falling backwards. Then me and Fang were on our backs on the ground with a sign hanging above our heads that said Platform 9¾. Our pets squawked in protest while we got up. In front of us was a brick wall, looking a lot like the wall that we fell through. As we brushed ourselves off, everyone else came falling through the gateway, knocking me into Fang, and all of us into the ground.

"Well, now that we're all here, let's get moving." I groaned, trying to lift myself off of Fang, when Nudge sat on me. I went down with an oof. My face was stuck in his neck, so I could only mumble, "Geroff."

"What did you say, Max?" She said innocently.

"She said 'please get off of her'." Fang gasped. Nudge gasped as well, and then the weight was lifted, and Fang shoved me off of him, both of us gasping for air. The others laughed like it was hilarious. At least, until I glared at them. That shut them up real quick. We got on the train, which had only 2 minutes left, and started looking for an empty compartment. There was one last larger compartment empty, and we filed in. There were 4 bunk beds and one single bed were lined up against the wall, and it was obviously bigger on the inside, because it had it's own bathroom and sitting area.

We entered and put our trunks by our beds. I shared with Fang, claiming top bunk, Alice with Uriah, Nudge with Iggy, Angel with Gazzy, and Harry got the single. We sat, talked, played games, and read our new textbooks until everyone was asleep except me and Fang.

"So." I said. We were sitting opposite each other on his bed, our feet in the other's lap. He was rubbing mine softly, and I tell you, it felt like heaven. I remembered this morning, which felt like a lifetime ago. "Your nightmare?" He stiffened, and stopped rubbing my feet. I frowned, and scooted over until I was in front of him.

"You were dead." He whispered, hanging his head. "They tortured all of you to death right in front of me, videotaped it, and played it back in front of me. I was so afraid. Who would save me now? You guys don't know how much I need you, how scared I am that one day you'll all leave me." I wrapped my arms around him, understanding what he felt.

"Yes I do. I do know how you feel, because I feel that too, all the time." I said. He wrapped his arms and legs around me tightly, and burrowed his face into my hair, engulfing me in him. Eventually his ragged breathing slowed, and he fell asleep, and I soon followed suit. I was the first to wake, and it was very hot when I did. Then I found out I was under a mound of sleeping bird kids. I nudged Fang awake, who was lying next to me under the pile, and accidentally got Uriah too, who was laying directly on top of me. They assessed the situation, then Uriah closed his eyes and looked like he was concentrating hard on something, and suddenly the weight(except Uriah) lifted. We got up, and looked around to find our family floating in the air, still sleeping! Uriah set them back in their dog pile on the bed.

"Telekinesis, huh?" He nodded, grinning. I turned to Fang.

"Think of all the tricks we could play on Iggy." The 3 of us grinned evilly. Turns out it was 3 in the morning, but the 3 of us were so unused to sleeping so long that we were kinda hyper. Fang and I bothered Uriah until he told us his story.

They had been part of the School, too, until Jeb had released him. Alice, who was and had been his best friend for as long as he could remember, had turned into a mouse and ridden along. When Jeb found out, he tried to send her back, so they ran away. They were part of a gang for a while, then they left, and had been on the run ever since. They had found their latest hideout 5 days before they had met the flock. He had been developing feelings for Alice for a while now, and he was afraid of what she thought of him. I promised to find out what I could later. I then asked what was up with the boom box. "I programmed it to play any of the songs I want. Like this." He set it down and started pushing buttons. By now, the whole flock was awake and had gathered around to see what he was doing. Suddenly a song started playing. It was Angel of Darkness.

I sang to Fang the whole time, referring to him as the Angel of Darkness. Finally the trolley came by and we had lunch. We got to know each other very well. Soon it was time to get into our school robes. I went around and cut slashes into the uniforms with my army knife for our wings. We were to leave our pets and luggage on the train, but we wouldn't leave our animals behind, so they stayed on our shoulders, except Total, Angel's dog, and Shadow, Uriah's dog.

We were grouped with other scared 11 year-olds, and met up with Hagrid, who led us to the boats. I asked if we could fly over because we're not that fond of water. Angel, Uriah, Iggy, and Nudge had to stay with their earth-bound animal's but Fang, Gazzy, Alice, Harry, and I got to fly. When Nudge saw the castle, I'm pretty sure her squeal could be heard from halfway around the world. Wonder what Alabama would think.

"Tone it down, Nudge!" I yelled. Jeez, who gave her candy? Oh, right, me. Let's forget that happened. I got bored of going slow and decided to race Dash to the shore. That's what I named my dragon. I turned to ask him, only to find him changing colors. Right now, he was a rainbow.

"I know!" I said after thinking. The others looked at me like I was crazy. I turned to my dragon. "I'll call you Rainbow Dash."

"Really? I mean, Dash is awesome, but rainbows are girly." He said. I looked around for Gazzy, but he was hissing to his snake, who he named Shirly. I'm guessing it's a girl. I'm hoping it's a girl. I turned back to Dash.

"Dash it is, then." I looked around. Fang was talking to his dragon-bird hybrid named Jet. I did a double take. He rarely talked to us in mumbles. Why was he talking to his pet? Oh well. I shrugged and continued looking around. Harry was loopty-looping with his bird, who he named Hedwig. Alice was practicing maneuvers with John Smith. I don't know why, and I'm afraid to ask.

"Who wants to race?" I announced. Fang, Alice, Gazzy, and Harry all flew over with their pets, and we lined up.

"Ready, set, and…. GO!" I said. I stayed with the others for a good 5 seconds, then started speeding up. Both Jet and Dash were able to keep up. They kept up until I reached about 250 mph, then continued racing each other. I kept an average of 300 mph and circled around the castle 6 times before the rest of them got here. "Max," Fang puffed, "you know using superspeed is against the rules."

"There are no rules in love and war." I sang, and flew away. I landed with the other kids on the dock, and was surrounded by the others. Uriah patted me on the back, and said, "Superspeed? Nice."

Dash landed on my shoulder as the others landed near me. He was grumbling about superspeed and how unfair it was. Hagrid ushered us into the halls of Hogwarts and made us stop in front of what sounded like a 'Grand Hall', you know, like the ones in old castles. Hagrid went off to go get someone called Professor McGonagall. He came back with a crisp-looking woman in her 70ties. I already knew she was not one to be messed with.

"Alright, when you go through this door, you will be sorted into one of 5 houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, or Avainias." She said.

"Wait, what? There are only 4 houses, I know, father said!" A pale blonde boy said, pushing his way to the front where we(the flock) were.

"There were only 4 houses for a period of 45 years, and during that is the misfortunate time that your father attended our school. Needless to say, with our new additions, that house can be restarted again." She and the rest of the kids looked at me. I looked around.

"Oh! You mean us? Well, I guess that makes sense, considering we're awesome and all." I said nonchalantly.

"Glad you have your wit about you, Miss Ride." She said dryly. I just smiled innocently at her. She turned on her heel and lead us into the other hall. It had 4 long tables nearly filled with students. They all turned to look at us as we were led up to the front of the room. There was a long table at the back of the room, and in front of it was an old classic-looking wizard's hat on a stool. I examined the architecture, layout, and escape routes, and I could sense the others doing the same behind me. I then examined the teachers, who seemed the only threats. I had memorized all of my spellbooks, as well as several advanced spellbooks, and could probably take on any of the students. There was the 3-o'clock in the morning Professor, a short exited-looking man(Shorty), a very nervous man wearing a turban, a greasy-haired man who looked like he had swallowed a lemon(whom I named Greasy), a very wild-looking woman with short spiky grey hair and yellow eyes(she became ), and a dumpy little witch with flyaway grey hair. We all walked up to the front of the room, and lined up according to last name. We watched the unfortunate soul with the last name of Anchovies walk up the steps to sit on the stool. Professor Stricty placed the hat on her head. It muttered to itself, then shouted,

"HUFFLEPUFF!" The table whose colors were yellow and black cheered. This went on until Alice was called. She walked up to the stool and sat down without hesitating. She smiled at us, then focused on whatever was talking to her. The hat suddenly called out, "AVAINIAS!" There was a ripple of confused murmuring throughout the crowd. Then, on the wall in the back right of the room, a door appeared in a flash of light. Then words appeared over the door, shining in gold and silver. They said 'Rainbow Schmainbow Room.' yeah, right. I'm sure you can guess what it said. Alice looked at us once more before going through the door. I reached behind me and squeezed Angel's hand. They went through until it was my turn. I walked up and sat on the stool, and Stricty put the hat on my hand.

"Interesting. Very interesting." A new voice was in my head. This one was slightly deeper than my voice, but still no way to tell what age or gender it was. Then again, I guess hats don't have gender.

Wait, wait, wait, what are you doing here? My voice said rudely.

"Well there's no need to be rude." The other voice said, offended.

Oh, it's you. The stuck-up talking hat.

"At least I have a physical body. You're stuck in this poor girl's head."

I'd much prefer her head than being a hat. She's a nice, intelligent individual, and quite fun to annoy. I've seen a lot of places with her.


	4. Chapter 4!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is technically 5 and 6 combined, because 4 on ff.net was an author's note and 5 was really short. That leaves 2 chapters max left to copy over before I run out of prewritten stuff. Enjoy while it lasts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's so short, I don't want to combine more than two chapters at a time.

I'd much prefer her head than being a hat. She's a nice, intelligent individual, and quite fun to annoy. I've seen a lot of places with her. The voice said snottily.

 _Uh, Max? What's taking so long? Everybody out here is starting to worry._ Great. Yet another consciousness in my head.

'Don't worry, Ange. I'll be out in a few, once I deal with these two.' I thought back to her, then decided to take charge of the situation.

'OI! Voice, go away for a second. Hat, I don't care how smart you are, I will throw you in a fire if you don't sort me in the next minute!'

"Fine, fine. Lets see, not much taste for power, is certainly not ordinary, not a genius, but very smart,- wow. You are  very  brave, my dear. If it weren't for the wings, I'd put you in Gryffindor. Ah, well, oh well. You really have no other choice but Avianas.

'Then put me in Avianas. Either way, hurry up!'

"Alright, Yeesh!"

I opened my eyes just in time to hear the hat shouting "Avianas! Now get me off of this girl!"

The hall rang with laughter as I bolted off the stool, yelled "Look, it's not my fault you're difficult!" at the hat in my hands, handed it calmly to Professor Stricty, and ran into the room behind the staff table, waving to the crowd, grinning at Angel. I turned around and entered the other room, the laughter and cheers following me.

I walked into the room in the back, marveling at the trophies as I passed them. How did they get so shiny? I paused for a moment by a particularly old one, noticing it was for something like Quitish, or whatever it was. It had a black haired boy, not a broom, but in the air, flying like us, holding something in the air and grinning. A hand came up against the glass that I was peering through, startling me. It was light-skinned, scuffed, looking a lot like the-

"Hello again, Max."

I turned, stiffening when I saw him.

.

.

.

Iggy

had

a water balloon

in his hand.

I ducked under his arm and made a break for it, before bumping into Fang, and effectively getting us both drenched from Iggy, the trickster.

"Dang it, Iggy." Fang muttered, effectively looking like a drowned cat. Iggy, realizing he had gotten both of us, cracked up, attempting to apologize in between fits. He eventually gave up, having to sit down so he didn't fall over. Angel walked in then, looked at us, looked at him, and promptly walked over to Nudge and started talking business. And when I say business, I mean business. They had French Fashion Weekly in hand and everything. Harry was standing with Uriah and Alice, near the fireplace, talking. And Fang and I were standing in the middle of the room, drenched. Yep. That's how our new Professors found us. All in all, I think we were pretty presentable. Too bad Prof. Stricty didn't. She wrinkled her nose in disgust, then started to point her wand at us, probably to threaten us or turn us into turtles for ruining the carpet or something. Needless to say, I has my wand out and was in a defensive position before she opened her mouth.

"I was just going to dry you off, but if you prefer, you can stay wet." She said bemusedly.

"Oh."


	5. The Others

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stuff happens. Max gets mad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this chapter is short, but it stood better alone than it would combined with the last one.

Continuing from where I left off...

I turned to Fang, and after a moment's silence, slapped him.

"What was that for!?" I didn't even hit him that hard. Wimp.

"If you hadn't been there, I would have gotten away!"

"So? I got drenched too!"

"Consider this enforcement, then."

"What the hell, Max?"

I turned away, puffing out my cheeks in embarrassment and anger. He was completely dry where I slapped him. Wait. I turned back to face him again, narrowing my eyes at him.

"If you were hit with the balloon too, why aren't you wet?"

Fang sighed and rolled his eyes, flicking his hair out of his eyes like a girl. "Our professor cast the drying charm, remember?"

I looked down at myself. I looked at Fang. I looked at Prof. Stricty. I looked at Fang. I'm an idiot.

"Well, I'm sorry, Fnick." I said sweetly, patting his arm and smiling up at him.

He rolled his eyes and huffed again, but I could tell he was laughing at me on the inside, and had obviously forgiven me. Obviously. I turned to the professors and, as businesslike as I could, said "What's next?" Well, as businesslike as I could with them laughing at me.

Prof. Stricty smiled(shudder. now that was scary) and stepped aside to reveal a woman with spiky silver hair and a hawk-like face, the one with yellow eyes from the Great Hall. I had named her Hawk in my head, and was now certain I was accurate in that name.

"This is Madame Hooch, and she will be your House Head." Well, almost.

"It's very nice to meet you." Angel said, ever the polite one.

"Yeah, what she said." "Yeah." The rest of the flock agreed, still looking at what they were doing.

"It's nice to meet you too. Now before we go out and make all the other houses jealous with how different you all are, I want to go over some house rules." She said crisply, almost impatiently. The other professors rolled their eyes, but it got the flock's attention. "First of all, any points taken off will weigh heavily on our house, considering it's only you 10, I mean, 9 earning us points. So unless it's from Prof. Snape over there," She pointed at Greasy, who sneered. "then I expect there to be a very valid reason behind the loss. Second of all, no acting out too much. Yes, horseplay will be allowed, but actual training is only allowed in a list of certain places that will be posted by the door of the common room. Third, no scaring the guts out of the young ones. Try not to use your powers on them, and if you do, don't reveal it to them, if it's mental." I glared at Angel, who smiled angelically back at me.

"Wait." I said, interrupting Prof. Hooch. "Earlier, you" I pointed at Dumbledore, who had revealed his name earlier, "said we would meet others like us here, and you" my finger turned to Hawk, "said earlier that there were ten of us, not nine. So where's the other one?"

No one spoke for a second, all of them at Dumbledore, until he said, "Why, I don't know what you're talking about."

I narrowed my eyes at him, and felt the atmosphere drop 20 degrees, as all of the flock's attention focused on him. We hated being lied to. The killing intent rose steadily as Angel said quietly, "Liar."

The professors were alarmed, looking between us and Dumbledore, who, to his credit, wasn't petrified. I know what you're thinking. Overreaction much, right? Wrong. We deserve to know about others of our kind, and help them if they need help. The fact that these people had so many students in one secluded location and were lying to us, when we didn't trust them in the first place, was not helping their case at all.

"There are two individuals within these walls that have certain abilities linking to yours, but one not must have his identity revealed for his protection, and the other I would encourage you to look for in the Gryffindor House, for he chose to hide in fear you would be disappointed. If you can find him and prove that he is not a disappointment as he so believes, he will probably join your ranks. But you will have to prove it to him." Dumbledore chose his words carefully, as if he might give away too much.

"What do you mean, must be protected for his own protection?" I demanded. "Are our skills not enough protection for him?"

"He needs, ... a different type of protection."


	6. The Grand Entrance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this one-handed. I'm sorry it took so long, First I had Finals to worry about, then summer swim, and now I have free time, but something's wrong with my right hand. I woke up one morning and I couldn't bend my wrist without pain. Now it's swollen, and I have a splint from the Doctor, but it's not doing much better. At least I learned how to write one-handed. This took me three hours to do, though.
> 
> EDIT: That was about a month ago. My wrist is healed now, but I still have Champs this weekend, and this is the last chapter to copy/paste, so there won't be more for a while. I'm also sorry for the bad quality. When I'm actually in the mood to write, it gets ahead of me. What can I say?

I huffed, a bit annoyed. Why would someone need any other type of protection? I was one of the best combataistist thingies.

You mean fighters?

'Yes, Angel. That's exactly what I meant. Can you get out of my head now?'

Sorry, Max.

"If you're done, I would like to take you to your rooms." Madam Hooch looked at us warily, as if we were not at all what she had expected. Good. I don't like being expected. That's what all the bad guys say when the hero bursts into their secret lab/work/home.

"The key to your dorm is customizable, and you should probably decide on a key word or phrase as soon as you get in the dorms. I would make it simple and easy, like one of your names, perhaps?" She continued, bringing out a broomstick from a nearby wardrobe. Seriously, why? Why in the wardrobe? And why a broomstick, of all things? Is she going to start sweeping? "You'll need to fly to your rooms as well, but there is an underground entrance/exit in case of emergencies or one of you hurt your, uh, wings. Anyway, I will be waiting by the entrance to the Grand Hall. Come to me when you finish your dinners. You will be seated at the smaller table in t he middle of the room."

While she was talking, the rest of the teachers filed out awkwardly. Dumbledore was the only one who remained, turning to let Madam Hooch exit, before beckoning us with a smile back into the hall.

"I would suggest a grand entrance of sorts. Might raise the spirits, if you know what I mean." He whispered as I passed. Did he mean the self-conscious student? The one too wimpy to even show his face? I suppose that might work, but that might also backfire. What if something bad happens? Well, I guess there's only one way to find out, isn't there? As I entered the hall, I could already hear the whispers.

...What's so special about them?...

...Why are they in a different house?...

...I heard they are especially stupid, so much so that they need a different education! Maybe Longbottom should join them...

I snapped to attention at that last comment. Guess there are bullies here, too. I was sick and tired of the rumors flowing all over the place. Running past the others, I went back into the weird magically appearing room and grabbed a megaphone I had seen on the way out. Running back through the doorway, I nearly ran into the others. I grabbed Fang's hand as he reached toward me ant took off running, just barely taking off before I ran into one of the tables. Fang was a bit wobbly on the takeoff, but after we got in the air and he got his hand back, he was fine. Confused, but fine.

Looking back behind me, I noticed the others quickly following suit. That's good. I didn't want them to miss out on the fun. We circled the Hall a few times, sometimes doing flips or different tricks.

I landed in front of the teacher's table, facing the five tables.

"Let's get one thing straight!" I yelled into the megaphone. "First of all, we're not stupid. And we can hear you. So don't say stuff like that about us or your fellow classmates, like honestly. Really? What happened to human courtesy? Oh, wait. I forget. Humans did." I said, earning a few laughs. "And secondly, respect our privacy. Don't come up to us asking for autographs or anything. We don't do that stuff. Oh, and if I catch you bullying other students or anything of the like, I'll deal with you myself. Ta ta." I waved cheerfully and walked over to my table.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!?" Fang whispered to me furiously when I sat down.

"I was setting some things straight. They need to know the ground rules." I said, a bit irritated that Fang was freaking out over this.

"Are you trying to get us killed?" He was starting to rant. "What if one of them notify the school. What then? We still don't know if this place is a trap! What about-"

"Silence, please!" Dumblydore had stepped up to the podium where I had left the megaphone. "Due to our new arrivals, there has been a change of plans. You will get your schedules today. When classes start..."

I yawned, waiting for the food to come out. I wonder what kind of food they have here. American? Maybe, but not likely. I'm pretty sure we're still in Europe. After Dumbledore finally finished his speech, He clapped his hands and said, "Let the feast begin."

I looked around expectantly to see everyone already digging in. The food had appeared on the table. There was literally every kind of food I could think of! Burgers, pizza, burritos, the lot! After I had my fill, I leaned on Fang, yawning. I don't know why I wasn't on full alert. Fang turned to me, mouth full of taco, eyes annoyed and questioning.

"I'm putting on a show. Best evaluation tactics. Pretend to relax, and the enemy relaxes, slips up." I whispered, grinning. He nodded in understanding, going back to his food. Halfway through dessert, Alice looked at us, me with my head on Fang's shoulder and Fang leaning his head on mine, and laughed.

"Well, are you two sure you're not a couple?" She smirked at us.

I backed away instantly, blushing furiously. "No, no we're not. We're just good friends. Very good friends." I said, looking down.

"Yeah. She's too stubborn." Fang said, scowling. No doubt annoyed at the fact that other people assumed we were together. Besides, I'm not his type. He likes redheads.


End file.
